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Housing campaigner and antiques dealer Brian Pottle |
Antiques dealer Brian’s life of fighting for housing
PADDINGTON housing campaigner and activist Brian Pottle, who fought to improve living conditions for tenants for more than 30 years, has died, aged 71.
A native Londoner and former pupil at St Saviour’s Primary School in Maida Vale, Brian will be remembered as a die-hard community champion who remained in the council flat he bought from his parents in Polesworth House despite making a small fortune in the antiques trade.
One of five sons (including his twin Pat, the late anti-war campaigner who famously helped Soviet spy George Blake escape from prison in 1962) of an Irish Catholic mother and trade union official father, Brian joined the RAF before “falling” into antiques dealing after a stint as an upholsterer.
He specialised in buying and selling 1930s bamboo furniture, largely to the American market, from his store Brian and Joseph that he ran with his Spanish partner in the Antiques Arcade in Camden Passage, Islington.
He never became depoliticised by the trappings of wealth, sitting on numerous tenants and leaseholders committees until the rare form of spinal cancer from which he eventually died became too debilitating.
Brian’s friends say he had a spirited “don’t let the bastards get you down” attitude that was an inspiration for people struggling in some of the most deprived estates in London.
He was certainly a dogged opponent for a council that was on the frontline of Conservative privatisation in the 1980s and, more recently, CityWest Homes.
Among Brian’s many hard-won victories were leading a group of leaseholders to a tribunal over spiralling repair bills, and getting porters installed in the tower blocks of his estate.
Not only was he a champion by action, but Brian had a great sense of humour that made him the first port of call for residents seeking advice and support. He was also a huge Shirley Bassey fan and concert-goer.
JAMIE WELHAM |
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